Best Practices for Creating Videos

This is a basic list of best practices for creating instructional videos using an easy-to-remember mnemonic

Clear: Speak slowly and clearly.
Audience: think about who your audience is and speak to your audience.
Script: consider writing bullet points or a script in prepartion for recording the video. This preparation can help keep the video clear, on-topic, and organized.
Time: Many videos benefit from being kept short and concise. Try to make videos less than three minutes in duration, or consider breaking up the video into separate videos.
Lighting: create your video in a bright location, and avoid having an overly bright background which can result in the subject of the video looking underexposed.
Environment: consider where the video will be created and what the background will look like.
Sound: audio quality is usually very important in a video. Test out your microphone positioning (distance and orientation to your mouth) and settings in advance to get the best audio quality possible. Consider upgrading the microphone if audio quality isn't good. Reduce distracting noises such as environmental sounds or sounds from clothing or jewellery. If you're finding the audio quality of your headset or microphone to be poor, the HyperX SoloCast or Razer Seiren Mini are both desktop microphones that provide excellent sound quality and can often be found on sale for $50 CAD (current as of 2023). Either can be used with a cheap (~$20) microphone boom arm if you want to be able to better position it.